Perceptions of Vultures across Cultures
How two types of vultures altered the way cultures have depicted them for ages.
In the beginning, the world was sick and full off dead, decaying, and rotting creatures. There were no spirits to renew the dead into the living, and so, as it goes in Cabbo mythology, the living world suffered. It was not until an old, outcasted woman befriended three vultures and taught them how to become who they are — to be the harbingers of life from the pits of death — that the world found balance.
There are dozens of stories like this in Native American, Celtic, African, and Tibetan culture— stories that praise the vulture as a beacon of spiritual renewal, cleansing, purification, and patience. In Cherokee, turkey vultures are called the “Peace Eagle” because they don’t kill anything in order to live.
And yet, some cultures saw vultures as greedy, bullyish, and untrustworthy creatures. In one Native American story, the Jaguar had to rescue the sun and the moon from the Vulture People, who had stolen it for themselves.
Christian lore is even more overt. The Bible references vultures as servants of Satan in (Genesis 15:8–17) that Abraham had to fend off like death-eaters. However, this is due to the Biblical representation of death, and wild animals, as antagonistic creations, which goes beyond the scope of this article.
Why do some cultures in North America loath vultures, while others love them?
I think it is because they are speaking about different birds — different types of vultures.
In the New World, there are two main types — black vultures and turkey vultures — and the anatomical differences, behavior, and general ‘vibe’ between the two could make up for the vast disparities in mythological representation.
Turkey Vultures
With a six-foot wingspan, the posture of a gargoyle, and a bloody redhead, Cathartes aura hails as one of the most striking birds in North America. He lives in barns, trees, caves, and pretty much anywhere he wants.
I could literally talk all day about them, but instead of annoying you, here’s this super cool vulture fun-fact sheet if you’re interested.
A Turkey Vulture’s Tools
As nature’s janitors, turkey vultures, are equipped with the right tools for a janitorial job.
Sense of smell. Just like janitors carry walky-talkies to hear about messes two buildings away, the turkey vulture has a nose (sort of), a nose that can smell a dead field mouse from 2 miles away.
Big wings. When I worked as a janitor, I sat around and watched TV in the main hall all afternoon if I wasn’t working. Similarly, turkey vultures coast on wind currents all day long, hardly needing to flap a wing, circling, circling like Zen monks — going nowhere, doing nothing, often with family members.
Beak. A turkey vulture can plunge its head into the toughest cowhide and rip out its small intestine with ease. What it lacks in strong claws, which resemble chicken feet more than raptor, it makes up for with its freakishly strong face.
Behavior and representation
Turkey vultures coast all day on wind currents with their families in gentle figure eights, smelling the air, roosting in dead trees with their wings spread to the sun, huddling like Sith Lords. As one member of the Kogi tribe in Colombia put it, “No one hates this animal, because it does not do anything bad.”
They are the pinnacle expression of avian patience, loyalty, purification, and renewal, and I am unabashedly biased to love these creatures. I think that the cultures representing vultures accordingly are really talking about them.
Black vultures
If turkey vultures are nature’s janitors, black vultures are its repo-men.
Black vultures don’t f**k around. They will peck the eyes out of sick cows, steal baby cats, and take small children from their mothers’ arms. Okay, not that last thing. But these guys carry a nastier reputation, for factual or fictional reasons, and are famously loathed by cattle farmers.
Their tools
As nature’s repo men, black vultures are equipped with the right tools for job.
Claws. A black vulture actually has more raptor-like feet which allow it to grab living animals, which they occasionally do. For reference, turkey vultures can hardly pick up a mouse. They can also run. They scurry way too fast, with the posture (and vibe) of an orc from Lord of the Rings.
Weight. They weigh on average twice as much as turkey vultures, from 3.5–6.6 lbs. They have a bullish neck, thick, stout legs, and a dense frame. They use that weight to bully turkey vultures away from meals, who they often followed there, hence earning the entirety of vultures the reputation as bullies.
Eyes. Black vultures rely on their eyes to find food. This is the biggest impetus for their more bold behavior because they must actually run into things to figure them out, unlike turkey vultures who can just wait patiently all day.
Behavior and representation
Flying fast with their families, black vultures race around new kill sites with their stout legs and thick wings, using their good eyes and weight to clean things up. Occasionally, a group of black vultures will peck a sick calf to its death.
Because of their behavior and anatomical differences, black vultures are often represented as more aggressive, bullyish, and greedy spirits.
Let vultures be vultures, and cultures be cultures
How could tribes like the Cheyenne revere vultures, while other tribes mistrust and fear them? Because, I think, they’re talking about different birds.
Both vultures, however, serve the same necessary, dirty role in ecosystems: cleaning up the leftovers. Without them, the world, as the Cabbo tribe knew, the world would be plagued with disease. And in parts of the world where vultures have been killed of, like parts of India, it is.
Think of these two doing a form of good cop — bad cop routine. They are, invariably, just two sides of the same coin, of which we all will see the flip. And whether native cultures revered or feared these different birds, they respected them nonetheless.
